Facing Humiliation – Reflections from not being promoted

What surprised me most when I did not get promoted was how much it affected me. When I found out my peers had surpassed me, the shadow of comparison hung heavy over me for a few days. This reality that I had not done as well as they had, and certainly not enough to justify a promotion, was a humiliating one to face up to. But even more destabilising was realising that the anchor of my identity had drifted so far out into murky waters!

I had thought that as a Christian, I had long settled within myself that excelling at work was about serving the Lord, not about getting ahead of those around me. Turns out that I was wrong, and that time and time again, I would have to come before Him to re-orient my heart, and recognise that all things, including the pace of my career progress, and all human recognition or approval, were held in His hand. 

However, as time went by and challenges at work waxed and waned, I realised that if we are not careful, even the Christian identity can replace God as our source of security. The line is so fine it’s often hard to see. But there is a great difference between numbing ourselves to the harshness of working life (“It doesn’t matter if I get promoted or not; I don’t care about my work, only ministry.” “Even if I don’t do well in this project, at least I am a faithful Christian, right?”) and clinging to God to navigate all these very real emotions and struggles that Christianity does not help us escape.

Having a Christian faith does not give us the license to close our eyes to problems or pretend earthly rules do not apply to us. Instead, it offers us a new lens through which to see them, hope in place of selfish ambition, and intimacy with a heavenly Father in the midst of the routine and ordinary. 

“Christianity offers us a new lens through which to see problems; hope in place of selfish ambition, and intimacy with a heavenly Father in the midst of the routine and ordinary. ”

In some sense, being “in the world” means remaining subject to similar experiences as those around us who have yet to believe in Him. At work, this could look like being unfairly treated, navigating imperfect systems, or working alongside toxic co-workers. Those are not circumstances we get free passes out of just because we are Christians. 

But being “not of the world” means that unlike those who do not know Christ, we live lives of stewardship and surrender, in that whatever we do, we take care to steward the process and surrender the outcome. At work, this could look like living with integrity and moral courage,  believing that God will provide the breakthrough. It could look like exercising honour, meekness, patience, and humility in our interactions with people – because our value has already been defined by Him and we need not clamour for human recognition. God invites us on a journey of growth and maturity, and we entrust Him with the destination. 

Stewardship and surrender complete and complement one another in the Christian walk. If in searching our hearts we realise we have not been proper stewards of our time and talent, we should not abuse the notion of surrender when we get a result we don’t like.

“Stewardship and surrender complete and complement one another in the Christian walk.”

For example, we don’t claim persecution if it’s our own bad attitude that gets us lectured by the boss! And on a smaller, more subtle scale, if our best effort is somehow not as impressive as the next individual’s, we don’t infer that God’s will is necessarily for us to plateau or to continue lacking prominence.

If anything, it simply means we are participating in and experiencing the realities of a world where hard workers can get passed over for promotions without always understanding why, where colleagues might form judgments quickly, where there will be an inevitable spectrum of abilities in a team. But, we simultaneously inhabit a Kingdom where regardless of injustice or illogic, we continue to carry the character of our King, into everywhere we go and everything we do.

“we simultaneously inhabit a Kingdom where regardless of injustice or illogic, we continue to carry the character of our King, into everywhere we go and everything we do.”

In short, this faith we have does not exist for us to feel better about ourselves, in the workplace, or anywhere else. It is not a means to an end, a way to find insulation from trials or absolution from resposibility. Rather, this faith we have is an end in itself: a treasure that countless saints interceded for, and that Jesus came and gave His life for.

By Charis Tan, a mentor in our marketplace programme.